


Of Every Age

by onward_came_the_meteors



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Family, Family Fluff, Gen, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, One Shot, POV Third Person, Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pumpkins, Ratings: G, Trick or Treating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 10:11:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21251705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onward_came_the_meteors/pseuds/onward_came_the_meteors
Summary: The Potter family begins their Halloween night with pumpkin-carving, trick-or-treating, and maybe a few words of comfort.





	Of Every Age

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween!

"You could carve it by magic, you know." Ginny Potter picked up her own wand in demonstration, pointing it at the pumpkin and carefully edging it through the air. Pulpy orange shavings split off in the pattern she wanted. 

Harry Potter shook his head. "We should do just one by hand." He looked at his wife mischievously. "Or do you not want to do it 'the Muggle way?'" 

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "You know that isn't what I meant--hey! Give me back my wand!" 

"Nope," Harry stuck the wand on a nearby bookshelf and turned to face Ginny again, who had her hands on her hips but a reluctant grin emerging on her face. "We will have one traditionally carved pumpkin this year if I have to lock up every wand in the house to make it happen!" 

"Who's locking up every wand in the house, Daddy?" 

Harry and Ginny turned in the direction of the voice, which revealed itself to belong to a small red-haired girl in a pair of butterfly wings, leaning over the railing of the stairs. 

"Mummy, I can't get my wings zipped up," she added, coming the rest of the way down the stairs and into the living room. 

"Come here, then." Lily Luna obediently spun around for her mother, who located the zipper and pulled it up. "There. You're going to be the brightest butterfly out there." 

"I'm a blue morpho butterfly," Lily corrected, twirling around in her newly-zipped-up costume. "Didja know, there's pixies in the Amazon, who mimic blue morpho butterflies, and that's why Muggle scientists don't think they're endangered yet?" 

"Really?" 

Lily bounced around some more, half out of breath. "Yeah, and that's why we have to save the rainforests, accordin' to the book I read." Apparently tired out, she flopped onto the couch, but just as quickly rolled over again to face her parents. "So who's locking up all the wands?" 

"Your father thinks we need to carve pumpkins with a knife and scooper," Ginny said. "I was just about to tell him that if he wanted to do that, he maybe shouldn't have waited until Halloween night to say so." 

Harry shrugged. "How was I supposed to know you'd carved the others already?" Indeed, a line of pumpkins had made a home on their front step, ready for the trick-or-treaters that would be coming down the street at any minute. James's with a snarling monster face, Lily's with a huge round mouth open as if to eat the others, Ginny's with the number of her favorite Quidditch player carved on, and Albus's with what was probably supposed to be an owl but looked more like a lumpy rat. 

Only Harry's was left, and he wanted to carve it properly. 

"I wanna help!" Lily peered at the half-carved pumpkin. It rested on a sheet on the floor, bits of seeds and guts spilling out. Beside it lay an array of scooping and carving tools. 

"I thought you wanted to go trick-or-treating," Ginny said. 

Lily paused, biting at her lip. It was clearly a tough decision, but predictably, the promise of candy and showing off her costume to her friends won out. "Trick-or-treating, then. Can I go now?" 

Harry craned his neck to see through the curtained window. The night had fallen, and clusters of costumed children were already traversing the streets. "Sure, let's just get your brothers." He cupped his hands around his mouth and called upstairs. "Boys!" 

"Gimme a second!" James Sirius burst out of his bedroom and thundered down the stairs, somehow managing not to trip on his long Quidditch robes. He held a broomstick in one hand and a bag for candy collecting in the other, although he was now at the age where Harry wasn't sure how much actual trick-or-treating he would be doing and how much would be running amok with his friends. 

Oh well. It was his last Halloween before Hogwarts, after all… whatever made him happy.

"Let's go, let's go!" Lily ran around the room in a circle. "Please, Mummy, can we go?" 

"We seem to be missing one," Ginny said, pulling on a coat. "Harry, why don't you go and get Albus, he might not've heard." 

"Will do." Harry went up the stairs to the bedroom at the end of the hall. He tapped gently on the door. 

There was a rustling noise, the sound of child-size feet hitting carpet, and a pit-pat-crick-creak until the door was pulled open by Harry's youngest son. 

"Oh, hello, Dad." 

"Hey, there." Harry looked around. "Where's your costume?" 

Albus flopped down on his bed and muttered something into the pillow. 

"What?" 

"I said I dunno. Some Muggle kids down the street were saying it's stupid to wear costumes once you're not a little kid." Albus twisted a piece of sheet around in his hand. 

"Your brother's got a costume on." Harry sat down beside him on the bed. 

"'S different." 

"How is it different?" 

"Because…" Albus glanced up at his father, then back down at the bed. "Because James is going with his friends, and they're all in costumes, but I'm going with you and Mum and Lily." 

"Should I wear a costume, then? Would that make you feel better?" 

A giggle slipped out of Albus's mouth. "No." 

"Were you going to wear a costume before the kids down the street told you you couldn't?" 

Albus nodded. 

"Then there you go." Harry opened his hands. "You can't let some kids tell you how to have fun, Albus. This is your Halloween, too." He waited a moment as Albus seemed to be thinking it over. "Now I hate to rush you, but your sister is awfully excited to leave, so--" 

"Okay, okay." Albus jumped off the bed and beelined for his closet. He pulled out a plain white sheet with some eye holes cut into it with safety scissors and threw it over himself. 

He stood by the door, shifting on his feet as though waiting for approval. 

"Nearly-Headless Nick would be proud," Harry declared, getting up off the bed and smiling internally at how offended the Hogwarts ghosts would probably be at this distinctly Muggle-like costume. 

"Thanks, Dad." Even under the sheet, Albus seemed like a great weight had been taken off his shoulders. 

The two of them walked downstairs, where Lily was hovering impatiently in front of the door. As soon as she spotted them, she let out a shriek.

"They're here, Mum, let's go!" 

Ginny reached over to open the door. "Don't worry, Lil, Halloween isn't over yet." 

Harry pulled his shoes and coat on as Albus grabbed a bag for candy collecting. James was nowhere in sight--probably already out with his friends. The remaining Potters stepped outside and into the windy night. 

Their street was lit up, both with lamps and with glowing decorations, including the candles in the line of jack-o-lanterns on their own porch. Still only four… they'd have to fix that when they got back, and Harry was determined to carve the last pumpkin by hand… 

He and Ginny hung back as Lily and Albus raced to the first house, teasing about who was going to ring the doorbell first. 

"I can't believe this is the last year we're going to have all three of them at home," Ginny murmured. 

"I know." The wind played with Harry's scarf. "Every Halloween, it still feels like… like Quirrell is going to run through the hall yelling about a troll, or the Fat Lady's painting will have been slashed, or we'll be in that tent…" 

"Or there'll be red writing on the wall," Ginny said softly. "I know." 

"But then I see the kids, and I remember that was all years ago. And every bad Halloween that ever happened to me, it was worth it so they could have all these good ones." He pushed up his glasses absently. "I just hope they are having good ones." 

At that moment, Lily and Albus screeched to a halt in front of their parents, both clutching bulging bags. 

"Let's go across the street now!" Lily said, out of breath. 

"Yeah, the house on the corner's giving out candy apples!" Albus agreed. Harry could hear his grin underneath the sheet.

"I don't think you have to worry about that," Ginny whispered in his ear. 

Harry smiled, and the family all walked across the street together, ready to enjoy their Halloween night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
